"Sometimes life does not give us what we want. It gives us what we are supposed to notice." One afternoon in April, as I was sitting right here, at my computer, and while trying to put some deep reflections -or something like that- on the blank screen, I looked out the window to our driveway where our cars were parked. It was raining hard, one of those quasi-storms that every so often grace the days of late winter into early spring, and as I looked, my eyes witnessed the very moment when a big branch fell off our front lawn tree … Right on top of my unsuspecting and trusting car. As my eyes took in the full picture, and since there was really nothing I could do at that very moment, my brain -a bit slow to react to that totally unexpected situation- simply forced my face to look down, stare at what I had been writing, and continue it to its bitter ( how’s that for an effect word!) end. I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that the bureaucratic proces...

This morning, Manuel was on my mind. It has now been some four long years since the last time I was able to contact Manuel ( real first name, I’ll hold the last name…). Last time, as it usually went, I sent a Skype message to him and, within 3 days, he would call back, send a message or communicate. That last conversation came in late morning for me, late at night for him. He was then in Vietnam, still pursuing the impossible dream and working in an environment that raised the hackles in the back of my head. He made it a happy call, telling me about his then-current purpose and showing me around ( virtually, of course ) the place where he lived and worked. This was a multi-room apartment shared with a good number of people who, I must assume, were pursuing similar purposes. This is -from my own past experiences- a highly volatile and frustrating environment, where a phone call can trigger any number of probabilities. Most of them harsh and explosive. We talked for a while, and he...

We often spend many  years of our lives trying to achieve a place of personal comfort. A “safe” place, where we can feel relaxed and where we can enjoy the fruits of our labor.   Then, eventually, we think we are finally there. And at that moment, we realize this “place” is but a figment of our imagination. That space where we thought we might feel safe, has changed. It has metamorphosed into something different or perhaps “teleported” to someplace else. A different space, a different plane, perhaps a different construct. But it is no longer there, where we were sure to find it. We then have a choice. We either stop the search completely and exercise our frustration, or start anew, armed with whatever know-how we may have accumulated in our previous exploratory exercises. Learning is much like that imaginary safe place. We look, we listen, we read, we study, we try to understand, and then, when we are sure that we have absorbed all we need in order to say “I know” … we...